Every item that has appeared on Lady Violet’s and Lord Julian’s covers is sitting upstairs in my guest bedroom, and that accumulation of clutter, genuine antiques, and flotsam is driving me nuts. In a similar vein, I’ve lost around 85 pounds, thanks to the GLP-1 agonist mounjaro and thus I have about two and half wardrobes that no longer fit but still take up space in my closets and drawers.
The end of the year finds me in the mood to purge and prune, to free up space in my house and my life. I am no Martha Stewart–far from it. I have tended to view my house as a roofed campsite. In the past year, though, I’ve also fitted the place out with a heat pump, replaced the well pump and tank, replaced the whole electric panel, and upgraded the inside heating back up system.
I experimented with pollinator strips in the yard (one out three came through), planted four different kinds of fruit trees, and started a berry patch.
It’s as if, having revised my outward physical appearance, I am now more susceptible to the urge to get after my environment. It might also be that losing weight means I have more energy for basic domestic projects, though I am not now and never have been any sort of buzz saw. My dear mama had more energy in her eighties than I had in my forties, and her ghost still has me beat by a 2200-step mile.
My Christmas present to myself will be big bags of clothing taken to the Goodwill drop off, and a serious culling of the cover object inventory. For starters. I want my closets, drawers, and guest bedroom back. I want simplicity and efficiency in my domestic spaces, so I’m not hunting through a dozen pairs of black yoga pants (I am not exaggerating) to find the one pair that does fit and has recently been through the wash.
My wish for myself is that debriding my house of unneeded stuff will create mental space as well. The New Year is almost here, and I would like to spend it writing terrific happily ever afters and whodunits, not hunting for clean yoga pants or wondering who might like to have a genuine, slightly worn Victorian traveling desk, or a brown top hat, or a big old chess board…
What is your holiday gift to YOU this year?
PS: The web store has a few stocking stuffers on offer: The audiobook version (just in!) of A Rogue in Winter, and the ebook versions of The Holiday Duet, and What A Lady Needs for Christmas are each priced at $.99. I also figured out how to wangle the back end so that you can download the Rogue in Winter audio files even if you don’t have the Bookfunnel app. Tell Pietr and Joy I said hi!
And PPS: The blog will be on hiatus until early January, when I will be back, with–I hope–ARC files for A Gentleman of Sinister Schemes.
I am determined to enjoy the time spent with my adult sons, instead of grieving that it does not happen more often. I’m hoping that will be my gift to myself. Merry Christmas to you and yours!
I have some purging to do as well. Have boxes in the garage that need to be sorted and brought to goodwill. I have lost weight ( from the chemo) so I have clothes that can be donated, too.
I am going to sort through my work clothes and then my everyday clothes.I will feel better when the closets are organized.
Have sorted through CHristmas decorations and have boxes some up.
I am going to give myself a day of reading and am going to go on a nice long walk by myself…that’s my gift to myself.
Skip this first paragraph if you like) Some people may get upset with me (don’t bother letting me know as it won’t change anything) but my gift to myself this year is avoiding my family holiday dinner. It’s too many people and it drains this introvert, and I know at least some of them voted for the Orange Menace and I don’t need that negativity in my life. Staying away is also my gift to my partner whose birthday is Christmas Day and who would prefer to stay home also. We will have a nice quiet meal without bratty kids and prayers we don’t believe in and having to talk with people with whom we have nothing in common except blood. I’ve decided blood is not thicker than water to me now that my parents are gone.
I do wish good holidays to those who celebrate and a better new year. Congratulations on your weight loss, Grace! I, too, am trying to declutter since I have too much stuff I no longer need or use. Well, that excludes my romance books for which I have an entire room with 6.5 very full, tall bookcases. I don’t want to get too crazy (I know I’ll have to downsize at some point but that point is not now)! See you next year!
Well done you! Decluttering is always a gift we give ourselves. All that ‘stuff’ is unnecessary static in the energy field and bogs down the whole atmosphere. With the weght-loss (congrats!) and elimination of ‘things’ as well, you might almost feel like you’re flying
Have a great holiday season and a brilliant New Year!
Wishing y’all healthy, happy, safe and prosperous holiday seasons whether it’s celebrating or relaxing or a bit of both.
Well done on house & self! Must be going around as I now have an 40 shoe rack to haul to the charity shop & replaced the washer that leaked, the dryer that eventually dried after multiple cycles. I also have a stack of clothes for a friend who could use extra gear for her dawn bootcamp workouts now it’s getting colder. Haven’t needed an evening bag in the last decade & decided to prune any handbags my phone + wallet no longer fit in, so that’s my holiday project. Also checked expiration codes on my cosmetics & pitched a load. Perfect excuse for current colors, right?
Thanks for tinkering with the MP3 file options.
Decluttering is always a good idea. I have come to terms with the fact that I will never again be a size 10. I have come to terms with the fact that yoga pants are now my go to wardrobe. My view is that at my age, I should be able to wear whatever I feel like, that feels comfortable. So jeans have been relegated to the Goodwill pile. I also noted that my PJ drawer is overflowing with clothes I haven’t worn in years; they will be purged after the holidays. We also made the decision to become a one car family, after having two cars for over 40 years. And our old gas guzzler is being replaced with a smaller hybrid. Streamlining life and possessions has become our new mantra (mostly!). I still love the stuff I keep for entertaining friends, the beautiful platters and serving pieces, the table decor, the pots, pans, and utensils that allow me to create great meals and a fun party experience for dear friends. So I haven’t completely bought into the decluttering mindset, but I’m better than I used to be. Progress??? Stay safe. Stay well everyone!
Feeling the urge to declutter, too, but since I’m way behind in my cleaning, I guess it will have to wait. Maybe post-Christmas.
Good for you for taking steps toward better health, Grace.
My version of holiday de-cluttering is going to be convincing offspring, James and Isabel, visiting for Xmas, to de-clutter their youthful possessions that have been lingering in boxes in our basement for too long. I doubt I am the only reader with adult children who have left remnants of their youth behind. Thinking of which takes me back at this time of year to our days in Washington, DC, when James used to sing Handel’s Messiah (complete) every year at the National Cathedral until his voice changed.
I’m soaking up the latest Lord Julian –really, I can’t seem to get enough of this series. But, just a little comment — given that the protagonist was brought up in French, he should know when he speaks to Atticus that “good luck” is “bonne chance”, not “bon chance”, luck being feminine, naturally.
Yay for you. 85 pounds is amazing. I am also working on purging and letting go as well as investing in new electrical service to the house and a walk in shower. My goal is to have 3 decent yoga pants, sweats, gardening clothes and purge the rest. Hope I can make myself do it. Merry Christmas and I look forward to the blogs return in January. No luck with the drugs yet but here’s hoping for the new year. May you keep it all off.
GRACE!!! Congratulations on your significant health journey. That is absolutely wonderful! Feels good, doesn’t it? So very many people will benefit from that which you need to remove from your life. I’m thrilled for you. May you have the most wonderful of holidays.
I hope to do much of the same early in the year, things that I have either had to, or chose to put off in the past 4 months. Right now I’m working on a project as a Christmas gift and in order to finish it I have to let some things go…which oft times drives me nuts or grossses me out, but it will all happen, it’s obviously not going anywhere (without me.)
I am so happy for you and your weight loss, the best part is more energy and feeling stronger.
However you spend it, here’s to a peaceful and restorative holiday. Many blessings.
Congrats on your book news. The sales remind me I need to read What a Lady Needs for Christmas again. Love that story. I’m still dreaming it will show up as an audio some day. In the mean time, I’m so hooked on Lord Julian.
I am planning on visiting my sister Kay and calling my other siblings. My husband and son do the cooking in the household; my part is doing all of the grocery shopping (year round). I am sure they will make something even if it is not the traditional Christmas meal.
It sounds like you’ve been a whirlwind, Grace, with more ahead. I applaud your weight loss and return of energetic enthusiasm for these tasks. Can you send me some? (Energy, not tasks please)
I am also desperate to de-clutter. My downfall is paper. Piles of things to file or read from the last 4 years I think. I thought I had moved to keeping all files on my computer, but it is clear that is a dream not yet realized.
My bonus, I am hoping, will be that I can just recycle 90% of it since it has sat so long…
I made quite a bit of progress before having family here for Thanksgiving, but Thanksgiving fell much too close to Christmas this year!
And now the tree is up and drinking water like crazy but still looks just like it did before it was cut. I brought the lights up this afternoon; perhaps tomorrow I will get them on…
I’m wishing you the very best Christmas and New Years and wishing me your next book! Merry Christmas!
We gifted ourselves tickets for an event we wanted to see before Christmas. Decided we just didn’t need more stuff to pare through later. So I guess we are of a similar mindset. Things we do have more meaning than things we buy.
Merry Christmas! I hope you have the one you are dreaming of.
Dear Grace – to me you hold the position your mother holds for you. Having retired (for the most part) in ‘21 I have yet to rid my house of 45 years of work related stuff. I have also failed to rid myself of 60 energy draining pounds. What this lady needs for Christmas is to quit eating candy and be more like Grace!!
Happy Merry Whatever Grace and fellow Fans…
Good Wishes to you and all who are taking care of themselves by losing wieght. You can do it.
I also have too much stuff. Sadly, much of it is still in boxes from my last move in preparation of my next move. My gift to myself is trying to look ahead to the next move and decluttering at that point. Since about 50 of my 54 boxes of books are still boxed up for “after the next move” I am looking forward to opening them up and getting my library set up! Finally, I’ll have a dedicated (small) library!! Of course, this will likely be next fall so patience is needed. I am also going to try to relax, if at all possible. Congrats on the ability to get rid of stuff that doesn’t fit any longer (and in a happy direction, not the usual other way)!!
“Roofed campsite”, I so resonate with this! Cleaning is a good way to clear out some psychic trash, decluttering gives you headspace, and organizing puts your thoughts in order. Putting resources into infrastructure is wise. Congrats on the weight loss, I’m glad for you!
For the holidays, I’d like to be more kind and gentle with myself. Have a peaceful and loving holiday season. We’ll see you in January.
Congratulations Grace, great to hear your weight loss has given you energy and enthusiasm for planning change. I’m feeling it too. And I am heading towards 81, for which I never planned. Really planned to head out at 80. But since passing the deadline I have found so many things I want to do LOL. And they are all for me and all useless, ie building a dolls house and a fairy garden, new craft and starting new oil painting. go figure. Life is strange.
I have been sorting through our stuff, too. Bill had become a bit of a clotheshorse as he lost weight, both due to the cancer, and his efforts to keep his diabetes under control. 16 bags to the Goodwill of clothes and stuff I didn’t need anymore. It’s painful. I don’t know what to do with his complete Zane Grey and hymnal collections.
Through a random set of circumstances, only one son out of all our beloved family members could be here for our Christmas Day celebration. My gift to myself: NOT cooking Christmas dinner, instead ordering in advance from a yummy cafe near us. (Almost) no guests meant that we did NOT do a panicked clean-up hours before our dinner. We also gifted ourselves easy rules for wrapping presents: Gift bags were acceptable, and no ribbons were required. It was blissful! I wouldn’t want to do it every year, but it was perfect as an antidote that a very stressful year.
All that time we didn’t spend on planning, preparing, and panicking gave us the mindspace to clear out spaces that have been too long untended: expired cans of beans etc. from our pantry; books that I had read but didn’t want to keep (now donated to a fundraiser by a revered indy bookstore specializing in LGBTQ authors and subjects); the flotsam and jetsam that accumulates in a family home over the years. It’s a pleasure to see the space and order we carved out.
Congratulations on your weight loss, Grace! May you enjoy the added energy and clarity you mention. Happy New Year!